The Obelisk Gate
by N. K. Jemisin (Orbit, 2016)
audiobook read by Robin Miles (Hachette Audio, 2016)
More accessible than The Fifth Season yet still laudably free from exposition. The big picture does become clearer, but only as a corollary to Essun and Nassun’s smaller, more personal stories. Jemisin has a real knack for pulling readers into her world.
It Walks By Night
by John Dickson Carr (Grosset & Dunlap, 1930)
audiobook read by John Teller (Soundings, 2020)
Bencolin himself has potential but the viewpoint narrative is mostly slush-ridden, pseudo-poetic waffle disguising a paper-thin solution. The conspirators’ plan to hatch alibis—and thus the crime’s apparent impossibility—relies entirely on there existing an unusually observant witness with a slow watch!
Mr Inbetween, Season 1
by Scott Ryan; dir. Nash Edgerton (Fox, 2018)
Six-part crime drama/comedy done the Australian way. Scott Ryan has unique presence as a no-frills hitman balancing work and family life (although this latter aspect is neglected in the final act, which favours regulation black comedy and somewhat squanders the show’s potential).
Dancing Through the Fire
by Tanith Lee (Fantastic Books, 2015)
Lee’s short stories tend to forsake traditional plot arcs in favour of moody subversion, feminist re-slantings, surrealist tints and dream-laden unrealities. The result can be as affective as effective, moving the reader without proffering a destination. SF tale ‘Medra’ proves a standout.
Alita: Battle Angel
dir. Robert Rodriguez (2019)
Visually engaging SF, especially when focussing on its dystopian setting (Blade Runner vibes) rather than predictable cyberpunk action sequences—which themselves aren’t entirely egregious, though Motorball does take the CGI biscuit. Limited, but not damned, by straightforward storytelling and too-simple character interactions/arcs.
Death of a Busybody
by George Bellairs (John Gifford, 1942)
audiobook read by Ric Jerrom (Isis, 2017)
Bellairs often seems quite pleased with his trenchant vignettes and depictions of village life. Punching down aside, these hardly make up for a lack of substance elsewhere. The mystery is straightforward and slight, the amiable Inspector Littlejohn engaging in precious little brainwork.
Warhorses of Letters, Series 1
by Marie Phillips & Robert Hudson (BBC 4, 2011)
Radio comedy purporting to present romantic correspondence between the warhorses, respectively, of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington! The humour is rapid-fire and erudite, based on historical allusions, equine anthropomorphism and Anglo-French disparities. Daniel Rigby and Stephen Fry voice the horses.
L.A.’s Finest, Season 1
(Spectrum, 2019)
Disregarding its Bad Boys connection (thence presumably the negative reviews), L.A.’s Finest ticks all the right boxes as a buddy cop action/drama series. The characters gel, the actors commit. (Some casting surprises, but in a good way.) The humour works. Good stuff.
The Naked Sun
by Isaac Asimov (Doubleday, 1957)
audiobook read by William Hope (HarperVoyager, 2024)
A short story’s worth of mystery spread rather too thin across a novel-length exploration. With Earth detective Elijah Baley as his mouthpiece, Asimov pits two extremes against one another and thus postulates his way deeper into the sociological implications of robot dependency.
Shades of Magic: The Steel Prince
by V.E. Schwab; ill. Andrea Olimpieri (Titan Comics, 2019)
The depictions of magic—especially the Pirate Queen’s bone magic—are striking, but the art more generally is murky and the action scenes fragmentary and confused, providing verisimilitude (perhaps) but leaving the reader in a muddle as to who is doing what.